


Spooky

by darlingargents



Series: Snaibsel Week 2016 [1]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Artemis likes candy, Crack, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Halloween, Snaibsel Week 2016, Zatanna doesn't like halloween, bluepulse is mentioned briefly, it's Not Good and also kinda ooc but it's finished so please just take it, probably because superheroes are dorks, tbh i kinda hate this, the justice league and the team both have halloween parties for some reason
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-01
Updated: 2016-11-01
Packaged: 2018-08-28 08:03:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8437810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingargents/pseuds/darlingargents
Summary: Zatanna doesn’t like Halloween, and Artemis has made it her mission to make this October as spooky as possible.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Snaibsel Week 2016. Day 2: Halloween/Paranormal.
> 
> Don’t ask me what year this is supposed to be or what the dates are, I have no idea. Probably just set a few years into the future? WHO KNOWS.

The box of Halloween decorations in Zatanna’s arms was ridiculously heavy as she lifted it and closed the car door behind her. Artemis had gone ahead and was unlocking the front door of their house — _their_ house, their _own_ house, Zatanna was still getting used to it — and the gate was closed when Zatanna got to it. She didn’t have a free hand to open it, so she said, “ _Nepo etag_ ,” under her breath and it swung open.

“Did you get it?” called Artemis from inside the house.

“Yep.”

“Awesome.” Artemis appeared on the porch again, holding a fake skeleton. “I’m thinking this can hang on that tree?”

“Sure,” said Zatanna without much enthusiasm, placing down the box in the foyer. They’d realized early on in their relationship that Artemis was far more interested in Halloween than she, but she hadn’t quite felt it until it was the first of October and Artemis had dragged her out to buy decorations for their new house. It was something she felt could have easily waited until later in the month. Or never. Probably never, if it was up to her, to be perfectly honest.

It wasn’t that she disliked Halloween, or at least not _that_ strongly. But it was her least favourite holiday, and she often described it as “terrible” when prompted. She just didn’t really see the point of all this excess for a holiday that could be summed up with “children dress up in costumes and get free candy”. Well, as a superhero, she wore a costume for a living. It wasn’t as impressive when children did it.

Zatanna knew that her attitude was probably excessively harsh. She toned it down when she could.

Outside, Artemis had secured the skeleton to the tree, where it now hung with its arms extended. Now she was gathering fake gravestones and placing them throughout the yard as Zatanna watched from the porch. “Can you grab the fake blood?” she called, and Zatanna rolled her eyes.

“I don’t think you should add it yet. It’ll probably rain at some point this month.”

“Hm, true.” The gravestones were arranged; Artemis leaned back on her heels to examine them, and nodded to herself. She turned to Zatanna. “Where should I put the ghosts?”

“The ghosts?”

Artemis ran back up to the porch and into the foyer, reappearing a moment later with several “ghosts” — wire with white fabric draped overtop. There was a facial expression on each ghost, as well — dark holes for eyes and a stretched-out hole for a mouth.

“Should I hang them on the porch?” Artemis prompted when Zatanna didn’t answer her question. Zatanna shrugged, and Artemis sighed. “Spoilsport. Yeah, the porch’ll do.”

Artemis hung them on the porch, and Zatanna went back inside, wondering how she’d possibly get through a whole month of this.

*

“Seriously, Artemis? _Ten_ pumpkins?”

“I have a lot of carving ideas.” Artemis shrugged in Zatanna’s general direction as she carried the second pumpkin in from the car. Zatanna was on the couch, enjoying a mug of tea and Netflix; she would not be using her magic to help her idiotic girlfriend with her fruit.

“That’s ridiculous,” she said, taking a sip of the tea. Artemis glared at her for a moment before sighing and going back outside to the car for the next pumpkin.

*

“A haunted house?”

“It’ll be fun.” Artemis grinned at Zatanna. Zatanna briefly considered using magic to get out of the situation, but that seemed a little unfair. Although Artemis had told her that there was a superhero situation that required civilian clothes, and she was really annoyed about the lie.

“Fine.”

Artemis kissed her on the cheek and, grinning, dragged Zatanna inside. Artemis got scared at one point and almost punched one of the actors in the face, but Zatanna had to admit by the end that the thrill was a little bit fun. Even if she had red marks on her arm from Artemis digging her fingers in and refusing to let go.

*

The only Halloween party they went to together was on the last Friday before Halloween, and it was hosted by the current Team, open to all present and past members. The Justice League was having a party as well, the next night, but Zatanna had drawn a line.

“I can go to the Team’s party,” she’s said over a mug of coffee. “But I’m not going to the Justice League one. It was bad enough last year — half of the guys wore low-quality Batman costumes.”

Artemis, who was in the middle of carving pumpkin number four, looked up at her with an expression of betrayal. Zatanna had just raised a brow, and Artemis had conceded with a sigh. “Fine. But we’re wearing a couple’s costume to the Team one.”

“ _Artemis_.”

“That’s my condition.”

“Fine.”

So that was how they’d ended up here, dressed as Princess Leia and Han Solo. Zatanna fiddled with the buns she’d spelled her hair into — honestly, she had no idea how else to do her hair like that, the hairstyle was _impossible_ — as they approached the zeta near their house.

“ **RECOGNIZED: ZATANNA. 2-5. TIGRESS, B-0-7**.”

Inside the Watchtower, the party was still getting starting, with a few people still missing. Nightwing — dressed in the worst Superman costume Zatanna had ever seen — greeted them and complimented Artemis’s “surprisingly accurate” Han Solo costume.

“Etsy is a great resource,” said Artemis, and then she dragged Zatanna over to the food table, where Beast Boy — dressed as Harry Potter, to M’gann’s Hermione — was taking pretzels out of a bowl.

Zatanna examined her former teammates as she filled her plate with Halloween food. There was Kaldur, dressed as a cowboy and talking to Red-Arrow-as-a-vampire. Batgirl and Robin were both Jedi — Zatanna smiled a little at the coincidence — and talking to Superboy, who was — oh, no. Batman. What was it with superheroes and dressing up as Batman? She mentally tried to count how many Batmen she remembered from the Justice League party last year, and gave up after six.

She focused her attention elsewhere, scanning the room. Kid Flash and Blue Beetle were both crayons, blue and red — she smiled a little; they were probably the cutest couple she’d ever met in real life — and Wonder Girl was pulling off a badass Tinkerbell somehow. Guardian and Bumblebee were wearing a couple’s costume, too, but she didn’t recognize what it was from — something with a lot of bright colours. Lagoon Boy wasn’t even wearing a costume — just sulking in the corner and glaring at Superboy.

Zatanna picked up a cupcake — with orange icing and a spiderweb design — and took a bite as Artemis took her arm and dragged her away from the table. Her girlfriend was grinning widely, clearly full of Halloween spirit, and Zatanna had to admit that this wasn’t quite as terrible as she’d anticipated.

And when Artemis dragged her onto the dance floor a little later and she let herself relax and have fun with it, she realized that maybe she could get some enjoyment out of the season.

* 

One of the drawbacks — or benefits, Zatanna supposed, depending on what your priorities were — of the neighbourhood they lived in now was that it had a lot of young families with children. Which wasn’t a problem most of the year, but it did mean that Halloween was busier than it had ever been for Zatanna before. She’d never lived in a suburb before, or even just a residential neighbourhood — she’d grown up in apartment buildings.

“How many kids is it now?” asked Zatanna as she closed the door and put down the candy bowl. Artemis was behind her, noting down the number of kids they were getting with tally marks. The page she was using was already near full — and it wasn’t the first page she’d used.

“Three hundred and — forty-three.” Artemis blinked down at the paper in surprise. “I have to say, I didn’t expect that many, even with what they told us when we moved here.” The neighbourhood they lived in was pretty small, and considered to be generally safe, so the streets were closed off on Halloween night and people from all over the nearby city brought their children to trick or treat. Which meant that the locals had to spend a fortune on candy and spend the entire night handing it out. Zatanna had definitely not signed up for this.

“It’s not even done yet,” Zatanna pointed out, and Artemis groaned.

“Oh, god. At least we got enough candy to last the night.” She gestured to the empty boxes all over their floor and the three — no, two full boxes left sitting by the door.

“I don’t know why you got that many boxes if you expected less than this.”

Artemis put down the paper and walked over to Zatanna, dropping a quick kiss on her lips. Though they weren’t going out, Artemis was in full costume — as a witch this time, mostly as a joke. Zatanna didn’t find it very funny, but she had to admit it was a little bit cute. “I like candy. Problem?”

Zatanna kissed her again, and Artemis’s lips tasted like the candy she’d been eating. She pulled away and licked her own lips for emphasis. “Mm, no.” She leaned in to press a kiss another to Artemis’s self-satisfied smile, but there was a knock on the door before they could touch again. Zatanna sighed, pulling away.

“You get this one, I’ll count?” she said, and Artemis nodded, picking up the bowl of candy and opening the door to a chorus of _Trick or Treat!_

As Zatanna watched Artemis hand out the Maynards they’d bought, and counted the fifteen children at the door — they always came in droves, and she had to wonder why, while being a little frightened — she reflected that maybe this wasn’t the most terrible holiday after all. Just maybe.

She popped a Swedish berry into her mouth from an open package on the arm of the couch, and smiled sweetly when Artemis looked back at her with a murder glare, somehow knowing without looking that Zatanna had taken her candy. Yeah. Maybe not the _worst_ holiday.

**Author's Note:**

> literally if anyone tries to tell me that over 300 is an unrealistic number of trick or treaters i will just look at you because i got over 500 at my house last year. believe me. it is hell. i will update this tomorrow with the number i get today.  
> ETA: five hundred, fifty-eight.


End file.
